


Invisible Light

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Fireside Tales [129]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Future, Cybernetics, GFY, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-15
Updated: 2014-04-15
Packaged: 2018-01-19 12:59:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1470712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The streets that surround the great tower are washed in red, pockmarked by projectiles, and warped by fierce-burning fires that have to be left to burn out on their own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Invisible Light

**Author's Note:**

> Nori, guarding the Red Tower  
> Prompt: Red  
> Alternate Universe: Requiem Court

The streets that surround the great tower are washed in red, pockmarked by projectiles, and warped by fierce-burning fires that have to be left to burn out on their own. The buildings that are half-ruined around the tower, crisscrossed by those burned and bloody streets are the hunting ground of the most dangerous of the group of strange allies who hold this place as a refuge.

Nori keeps in the shadows in the lee of a broken window, watching for those who dare to cross the invisible line that demarcates the edge of the buffer zone. His fingers dance with impatience, a flicker of light that is invisible to those who don't have the enhancements the hunters do. It's when it vanishes that the others will know to move from their perches, still and silent and patient.

He can see them, shapes against the pewter gray of the sky that most take for outcrops of the destruction. It's strange to call Azog and Bolg and Dazbol allies. Less so, a little, to call Cúnessa the same, but she'd been an elf. They'd all been different, then. Now, they're all human, or as close as they've let themselves stay.

Later, they'll gather in their court, with those who'd once been thieves and orcs and murderers and smugglers and pirates. All of them pushing the boundaries of what being human means, tattooed, pierced, enhanced with genetics and technology in the same sort of piece-meal they'd made of their lives before.

The dangerous Requiem Court of Thorin, Lord of the Red Tower, the last refuge of the desperate and defiant. The Hunters, the Destroyers, the Black Army.

Nori spots someone running, not even trying to avoid the buffer, desperation written clearly on their face. Beyond them, a troop of the howling bastards that fight over every scrap and body that they can get their filthy hands on.

His hands still, and he flicks another glance at his companions. There are answering flicks of light - the person will pass through safely to the Red Tower. The pack behind them, however.

A smile crosses his face, and Nori waits until the last of those foolish enough to keep up the hunt crosses into their realm. Azog drops to the street at almost the same time Nori does, and they grin at each other before stalking toward their prey.

They will not leave Requiem Court.

**Author's Note:**

> Besides the named individuals, among the members of Requiem Court are Bifur and Kíli, Gollum and Grima. All of them nominally human, and none of them unaltered in some fashion. Radagast and Smaug are also somewhere in there. I am not sure who just fled through their hunting grounds, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.
> 
> Smaug is there because destruction is not his aim, it means less for him to collect. Radagast is there because he wants a chance to grow things again, and that means protecting what remains of people with sense. Gollum is being a cannibal, and Grima is terrified of trying to go into the Red Tower. Bifur is avenging his kin, and Kíli is Thorin's representative in Requiem Court - the only one who will leave Requiem Court to enter the Red Tower.


End file.
